Thailand's 2011 Annual Tourism Income Rises 30%

[webfact]

Thailand's 2011 annual tourism income rises 30%

BANGKOK, May 21 – Despite experiencing major tourism woes, Thailand earned tourism income exceeding Bt770 billion in 2011, an increase of 31 per cent year-on-year, according to Thanitta Savetsila Maneechote, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Tourism and Sports.

Despite problems which shook tourist confidence in travel to Thailand and last year’s devastating flood, she said the country still earned Bt776.2 billion, and recorded 19.2 million tourists, an increase of nearly 21 per cent.

Of this number, 12.2 million visitors – nearly two in three, or 63.7 per cent -- were revisiting Thailand, while the remaining 6.9 million tourists, slightly more than one in three, 36.2 per cent, were newcomers.

Regarding their purpose for travel, 8.9 million or 46.76 per cent were on holiday while about three million -- 15.82 per cent -- came for meetings.

The average stay period for foreign tourists was 9.64 days with an average spending of 4,187 baht per day, an increase of 2.66 per cent.

Meanwhile, last year, over 5.3 million Thai tourists travelled overseas, an increase of 1.11 per cent from the same period in the previous year, with average spending of 4,505 baht per day per person. Total spending for their trips abroad amounted to Bt122 billion, an increase of 0.48 per cent. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-05-21

[bigbamboo]

That's not merely amazing or even a premature miracle. It's just unbelievable.

Edited May 21, 2012 by bigbamboo

[givenall]

I sure love to know where these guys get the data. Just because there are 30 increase in the number of tourist does not mean the tourism income also went up by 30%. More tourist but they spend a lot less because the world economic problems

I am in the business and I do not see any increase

[ginjag]

What percent were visa runs ?????? cross border workers?????? I could go on about numerous other recorded entrants. manipulated figures again....... please tell us the truth Thailand.

[PattayaPhom]

tell that to th numerous businesses that are going bust on a daily basis

[brit1984]

I wasn't aware they had a system for tracking all the spending of tourists in Thailand. No checkout girl/guy has ever asked me whether I am resident or visitor.

Maybe all shops have some advanced system of hidden cameras with facial recognition technology linked to the cameras that take your photo at immigration; or maybe they have a huge team of detectives following all tourists and itemising their purchases.

Amazing Thailand.

Sent from iPhone; please forgive any typos or violations of forum rules

[pedro01]

You guys forgotten what was going on here in 2010?

Of course there was an increase in 2011...

[Nisa]

I sure love to know where these guys get the data. Just because there are 30 increase in the number of tourist does not mean the tourism income also went up by 30%. More tourist but they spend a lot less because the world economic problems

The average stay period for foreign tourists was 9.64 days with an average spending of 4,187 baht per day, an increase of 2.66 per cent.

[ginjag]

So-- what does a visa run person spend every day???.......He must bring the average stay stats down, as he will only be out and in ---about 2 hours---or 2 days for a embassy run.---and also day workers crossing-tourist entries ?? and so on, do google give these stats ??? ha.

[commande]

Definitely bad data that was intentionally published for political and economic reasons with some "save face" for certain parts of the government.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect App

[Nisa]

International tourist from 1998 to 2011

International Tourists Annual Statistics

2011 ... 19,098,323

2010 ... 15,936,400

2009 ... 14,149,841

2008 ... 14,584,220

2007 ... 14,464,228

2006 ... 13,821,802

Although many tourists come by land or other airports (Malaysians being the top visiting Tourist), it is interesting to consider the number of International Arrivals at just Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Number of Passengers by Year Suvarnabhumi

2011 .... 47,910,744

2010 .... 42,784,967

2009 .... 40,500,224

2008 .... 38,603,490

2007 .... 41,210,081

2006 .... 42,799,532

** Interesting note ... From Jan 1st of this year through May 17th, it is the 5th busiest Airport in the world by number of passengers.

[Nisa]

So-- what does a visa run person spend every day???.......He must bring the average stay stats down, as he will only be out and in ---about 2 hours---or 2 days for a embassy run.---and also day workers crossing-tourist entries ?? and so on, do google give these stats ??? ha.

What percent were visa runs ?????? cross border workers?????? I could go on about numerous other recorded entrants. manipulated figures again....... please tell us the truth Thailand.

Day workers are not counted as tourists. Border run folks make up an insignificant percentage of total tourists. The Expat numbers are not that great compared to number of actual tourists and most Expats have Visas which are appropriate to their stay here and not doing 15 or 30 day border crossings or getting multiple tourist visas. If somebody is here on a tourist visa then they are a tourist (a retirement, work permit visa... wouldn't equal a tourist). You can see by the average stay that 60-day tourist Visas aren't making a big impact on the average time spent here.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Nisa

[Nisa]

I wasn't aware they had a system for tracking all the spending of tourists in Thailand. No checkout girl/guy has ever asked me whether I am resident or visitor.

Maybe all shops have some advanced system of hidden cameras with facial recognition technology linked to the cameras that take your photo at immigration; or maybe they have a huge team of detectives following all tourists and itemising their purchases.

Amazing Thailand.

Sent from iPhone; please forgive any typos or violations of forum rules

It is done by polling / surveys and not at the grocery store. Same as with political polls, Unemployment Figures, Neilson Ratings and so on. You only need a small percentage of total people to get fairly accurate results but they of course are not going to be perfect and why you typically see a footnote saying there is a 3 or 4% margin of error.

[ginjag]

I wasn't aware they had a system for tracking all the spending of tourists in Thailand. No checkout girl/guy has ever asked me whether I am resident or visitor.

Maybe all shops have some advanced system of hidden cameras with facial recognition technology linked to the cameras that take your photo at immigration; or maybe they have a huge team of detectives following all tourists and itemising their purchases.

Amazing Thailand.

Sent from iPhone; please forgive any typos or violations of forum rules

It is done by polling / surveys and not at the grocery store. Same as with political polls, Unemployment Figures, Neilson Ratings and so on. You only need a small percentage of total people to get fairly accurate results but they of course are not going to be perfect and why you typically see a footnote saying there is a 3 or 4% margin of error.

Good solid defence Nisa nice try, As usual making all the usual reasons. Most expats are NOT on retirement visa Nisa, estimated not confirmed--1 million runs classed as tourist entries. this would include 15 day land----60 day tourist-- Non immigrant 0. and 30 day fly-in.-you think NOT a decent per-cent ??? I am not Knocking the persons loving a holiday--dont you see the adjusted figures---same as TAT AOT Prices lower stamp out corruption-and drugs--look at all these inflated announcements ??? good for the country for more people to arrive IF ???

[ginjag]

Passengers ariving at Swampy included Don Mu-flights ??? and thanks to Air Asia, boosting the domestic figures ???? Just got to be thinking how many would be here if it wasn't for the corruption and SCAMS. The returning people, who were happy ???? now the euro is at an all time low, and the Thaksin administration in power, what the figures will be next year ??? finally adding how many were put off with the Immigration problems at Swampy---they will show also next time. The only reason these figures are favourable is the influx of Chinese this last year, had it not been for their money-and travel opertunities, the numbers would have been poor.

[ginjag]

sorry for bold type on my last post---ginjag

[jonclark]

I sure love to know where these guys get the data. Just because there are 30 increase in the number of tourist does not mean the tourism income also went up by 30%. More tourist but they spend a lot less because the world economic problems

The average stay period for foreign tourists was 9.64 days with an average spending of 4,187 baht per day, an increase of 2.66 per cent.

Nisa. I really want this to be true, because it would be good for the country, but during the last 12 months most places I've stayed in on my travels around Thailand (Krabi, Samui, Koh Chang and Ayuthaya) hotel owners, staff have complained ./ commented that there are less visitors here and business is bad. Maybe they are playing the sympathy card hoping for a bigger tip - I don't know

But i do know that my ears are hearing this news but my eyes are telling me it's not true.

[Nisa]

Passengers ariving at Swampy included Don Mu-flights ??? and thanks to Air Asia, boosting the domestic figures ???? Just got to be thinking how many would be here if it wasn't for the corruption and SCAMS. The returning people, who were happy ???? now the euro is at an all time low, and the Thaksin administration in power, what the figures will be next year ??? finally adding how many were put off with the Immigration problems at Swampy---they will show also next time. The only reason these figures are favourable is the influx of Chinese this last year, had it not been for their money-and travel opertunities, the numbers would have been poor.

Yes, the 2012 rating includes the 1-month Nok Air flew out of BKK instead of Don Muang and the 2011 numbers include the 2-months during the flood period they did the same.

Despite the wide spread flooding, International Arrivals at BKK were up over 11% in 2011 (nothing to do with Nok Air).

And I am not sure what your point is about the tourist from China since they are not only still tourists but actually represent the second largest International Tourist groups (beyond Malaysia) that visit Thailand. Countries from the west make up a small percentage. US and UK combined are not equal to the number of tourists from China. Thailand's ability to attract those with money and ability to travel while continuing to increase tourism numbers during a global recession should be commended not. Your comment is akin to saying, "the only reason there is an increase in tourist numbers is because people still came here"

The number of tourists who will not come to Thailand because of past long lines at immigration or because Thaksin's sister is PM are not even statistically relevant.

Not sure why there is a need to either deny these increases or try to make light of them. It is obvious Tourism in Thailand is on an upward trend and has been for many many years.

[Nisa]

I sure love to know where these guys get the data. Just because there are 30 increase in the number of tourist does not mean the tourism income also went up by 30%. More tourist but they spend a lot less because the world economic problems

The average stay period for foreign tourists was 9.64 days with an average spending of 4,187 baht per day, an increase of 2.66 per cent.

Nisa. I really want this to be true, because it would be good for the country, but during the last 12 months most places I've stayed in on my travels around Thailand (Krabi, Samui, Koh Chang and Ayuthaya) hotel owners, staff have complained ./ commented that there are less visitors here and business is bad. Maybe they are playing the sympathy card hoping for a bigger tip - I don't know

But i do know that my ears are hearing this news but my eyes are telling me it's not true.

I don't know but try to book a decent room in Koh Samet for this coming week-end. It is now the Low Season and every nice place on the beach is sold out.

I really don't see why there would be any reason to purposely put out false numbers. Every year the same accusations arise and if every year they are inflating the numbers falsely over the previous year (to save face?????) then not only would it have come back to bite them in the a@@ already but it would easily be caught because the numbers wouldn't jive with other things such as international arrivals at the airport.

If tourism was down, it would be easy to blame it on the global economy and no face lost (which is a unrealistic motivation to begin with) and it would allow the tourism departments to get larger budgets to overcome the obstacles and come up with promotions.

Thailand is a very well known and popular Tourist destination and around the 15th most visited country for international tourists.

Are the numbers accurate? None of us can know just as we can't know if the numbers are accurate for other countries but what we should understand is the same methodology is used to collect these numbers all of the globe and these figures are what are officially quoted in many non-Thai government publications and industry reports and I have yet to see a disclaimer that says Thailand's number should be questioned because of the culture of "face" or that they can't be trusted for any other reason.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Nisa

[Moruya]

Well done Aphisit and co. for a tremendous tourism 2011 in the face of adversity.

Also in this week's news.

Red Shirts turn on Thaksin and his TRT, PPP, PTP natiionalistic Shinawatra, Damapong dynasty administration for using them as tools. TV forum says "told you so".

Reds beaten by Blues. The massive Red Shirt rally on Saturday was in fact beaten by the number of people who turned out to welcome Chelsea's parade bus following their Champions League victory.

Australian tourists on sex holidays to Thailand catch diseases through unprotected sex in what must be one of the shocks of the decade. Slip, slapper, slop guys!

Along with incredible news from the tourist sector Thailand's economy recovered from the Q4 flood-related slide to a Q1 recovery clawing back a bit more than the ground it had lost. Thanks you Australia. Buy a few more condoms next time.

Jatuporn, arch villain, provoker of arson and all round chump was apparently relieved of his MP status for failing to vote in the last election. He failed to vote because he was in prison and was not granted bail. He was in prison for a clear case of LM for which he had been mysteriously absolved earlier in the week. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. He will now be able to spend a bit more time on his favourite passtime - burning down shopping centres.

Miracle Thailand arrives in Britain's gay capital. A Thai transgender wins a beauty competition in Brighton beating 200 other participants. Note to judges - you'd better think twice before visiting Bangkok

Just to show that it's not all doom and gloom for Thai shoppers, Mama Instant noodles will freeze their prices for 4 months. Eat your hearts out merchants of doom - its healthier.

Thailand's taxi drivers havent quite got the hand of credit cards. Apparently nobody told them that when you spend money on the cards you have to pay it back.

[ginjag]

Nisa I am NOT Knocking, I am not believing the stats or the bull surrounding them, I am bashing the falsified figures, I and you will be aware, there are not the tourist at tourist venues. I was recently at Pattaya/Jomptien--very few people on the beach---mind you Chinese dont go there, Do you travel around Thailand Nisa --you cannot. or you will see with your eyes. Get off the google and get out of your apartment get on your bike and have a look. I also was through Swampy--few arrivals---I don't deny there are people here --loads, BUT. .... I never mentioned Nok Air-- Your telling me about Chinese tourists being the biggest in numbers, do you think I am that thick I knew it without your google. I praise you for all you Thai defense, it's nice BUT it is too regular and patronising over the top, to agree with everything is a bit sicky. I was speaking my mind, and what I see only. Believe your stats, but like TAT, what they shout about is not worth a dime sometimes.

[jonclark]

I sure love to know where these guys get the data. Just because there are 30 increase in the number of tourist does not mean the tourism income also went up by 30%. More tourist but they spend a lot less because the world economic problems

The average stay period for foreign tourists was 9.64 days with an average spending of 4,187 baht per day, an increase of 2.66 per cent.

Nisa. I really want this to be true, because it would be good for the country, but during the last 12 months most places I've stayed in on my travels around Thailand (Krabi, Samui, Koh Chang and Ayuthaya) hotel owners, staff have complained ./ commented that there are less visitors here and business is bad. Maybe they are playing the sympathy card hoping for a bigger tip - I don't know

But i do know that my ears are hearing this news but my eyes are telling me it's not true.

I don't know but try to book a decent room in Koh Samet for this coming week-end. It is now the Low Season and every nice place on the beach is sold out.

I really don't see why there would be any reason to purposely put out false numbers. Every year the same accusations arise and if every year they are inflating the numbers falsely over the previous year (to save face?????) then not only would it have come back to bite them in the a@@ already but it would easily be caught because the numbers wouldn't jive with other things such as international arrivals at the airport.

If tourism was down, it would be easy to blame it on the global economy and no face lost (which is a unrealistic motivation to begin with) and it would allow the tourism departments to get larger budgets to overcome the obstacles and come up with promotions.

Thailand is a very well known and popular Tourist destination and around the 15th most visited country for international tourists.

Are the numbers accurate? None of us can know just as we can't know if the numbers are accurate for other countries but what we should understand is the same methodology is used to collect these numbers all of the globe and these figures are what are officially quoted in many non-Thai government publications and industry reports and I have yet to see a disclaimer that says Thailand's number should be questioned because of the culture of "face" or that they can't be trusted for any other reason.

Increasing income by 30% in a year for an entire industry is a massive increase given the initial scale of the income derived from the tourist industry in Thailand before this announcement. If I got a 30% increase in income derived from my porfolio of stock and investments in a year i would be amazed and delighted. Individual companies can perhaps do it. But an entire industry!! Good luck to them if its true, individual resorts, hoteliers and spa operators must be cashing in big time!

[catmac]

A great job of toadying to TAT, Nisa. But just look at your own figures for arrivals at Swampy - from 2006 to 2010 there was no increase at all, in fact every year of the coup/Abhisit era arrivals at Swampy actualy fell! Yet the miracle TAT tourist numbers for that period showed a 2million increase, did they all walk across the border, or swim here?

Sorry, but I honestly don't believe that anyone (apart from you!) takes these announcements from TAT with anything other than a pinch of salt!

[Nisa]

Nisa I am NOT Knocking, I am not believing the stats or the bull surrounding them, I am bashing the falsified figures, I and you will be aware, there are not the tourist at tourist venues. I was recently at Pattaya/Jomptien--very few people on the beach---mind you Chinese dont go there, Do you travel around Thailand Nisa --you cannot. or you will see with your eyes. Get off the google and get out of your apartment get on your bike and have a look. I also was through Swampy--few arrivals---I don't deny there are people here --loads, BUT. .... I never mentioned Nok Air-- Your telling me about Chinese tourists being the biggest in numbers, do you think I am that thick I knew it without your google. I praise you for all you Thai defense, it's nice BUT it is too regular and patronising over the top, to agree with everything is a bit sicky. I was speaking my mind, and what I see only. Believe your stats, but like TAT, what they shout about is not worth a dime sometimes.

Why do you think the stats are bull?

As I already stated, pick up the phone and try to book a room in Koh Samet for this weekend. All the nicer places on the beach are sold out. The same was also true when I was booking rooms in Pattaya and Hua Hin a month or so ago .. all the recognized international hotels were full.

I was also just through BKK and as I have stated, it is the 5th busiest airport in the world so far this year.

As for not mentioning Nok air, you specifically asked about flights moved from DMK to BKK. What airline is the only passenger carrier still using Don Muang Airport and had to move to BKK during the floods? Hint, it begins with an "N" and ends in a "K" and has an "O" in the middle.

And FYI, Chinese are not the "biggest numbers" when it comes to International visitors. They are 2nd (try Google) and certainly not a group who should be dismissed so casually.

Just because you don't see things in your small world (no slight intended, it is a big world and Thailand is a big country) doesn't mean when presented with facts or figures that you should be paranoid and/or believe there is a conspiracy to deceive the masses ... especially over something like tourist numbers increasing in a popular tourist destination. As you can see by the airport traffic (courtesy of Google), over the last 5-years passenger traffic on average has increased approx. 2 million each year. And international arrivals increased 11% last year ... would it not make sense tourists numbers have gone up or are the airlines in on the conspiracy too? And this is not even considering that most international tourists are from nearby Asian countries and it is probably safe to bet airports like Phuket, Hat Yai (Malaysians are #1 tourists in #s), Chiang Mai and Koh Samui saw increases in international travel too.

[Nisa]

A great job of toadying to TAT, Nisa. But just look at your own figures for arrivals at Swampy - from 2006 to 2010 there was no increase at all, in fact every year of the coup/Abhisit era arrivals at Swampy actualy fell! Yet the miracle TAT tourist numbers for that period showed a 2million increase, did they all walk across the border, or swim here?

Sorry, but I honestly don't believe that anyone (apart from you!) takes these announcements from TAT with anything other than a pinch of salt!

And the reason and motivation to put out BS numbers?

First, you need to consider that the airport numbers are ALL passengers and not just International (which did increased by 11% 2011). The airport passenger numbers were only provided to give a sense of airport traffic compared to tourists.

Second, you should also be aware that Don Mueang Airport closed in the summer of 2006 and didn't reopen until early 2007. So the numbers are a bit skewed during this time as they are for 2011 when Don Mueang closed and Nok Air moved to BKK for a few months.

Third, Most International Tourists from Thailand are Asian. The number one visitors are Malaysian (border country) and BKK is not the only International airport.

Fourthly, Previous to the last 2-years, there is no year which shows an increase in International Tourist of more than a million and most years are only a couple hundred thousand different. Yet, it is the last two years that also show the greatest increase in passengers.

You can also see the number of international tourist decreased by 400,000 from 2008 to 2009 but the number of passengers went up by 1.9 million. I wonder why they would admit a decrease this year when they could have provided an increase of numbers to jive with the airport numbers?

Edited May 21, 2012 by Nisa

[Nisa]

Increasing income by 30% in a year for an entire industry is a massive increase given the initial scale of the income derived from the tourist industry in Thailand before this announcement. If I got a 30% increase in income derived from my porfolio of stock and investments in a year i would be amazed and delighted. Individual companies can perhaps do it. But an entire industry!! Good luck to them if its true, individual resorts, hoteliers and spa operators must be cashing in big time!

I don't know about the numbers and can't speak to them but would think that this money is real and did come from somewhere as it is part of the GDP. So, if the numbers are not real then they need to be siphoning and lowering the income from another sector of the economy.

I also think you would have to look at the percentage of increase or decrease in 2010. As somebody mentioned, 2009 was probably not a great year for international tourist spending in Thailand.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Nisa

[prefabs]

Increasing income by 30% in a year for an entire industry is a massive increase given the initial scale of the income derived from the tourist industry in Thailand before this announcement. If I got a 30% increase in income derived from my porfolio of stock and investments in a year i would be amazed and delighted. Individual companies can perhaps do it. But an entire industry!! Good luck to them if its true, individual resorts, hoteliers and spa operators must be cashing in big time!

I don't know about the numbers and can't speak to them but would think that this money is real and did come from somewhere as it is part of the GDP. So, if the numbers are not real then they need to be siphoning and lowering the income from another sector of the economy.

I also think you would have to look at the percentage of increase or decrease in 2010. As somebody mentioned, 2009 was probably not a great year for international tourist spending in Thailand.

I think they got their figures from the Income Tax returns of all those who declare their income truthfully.

I'll get my coat again

Edited May 21, 2012 by prefabs

[Nisa]

No clue if this is the case but one reason for the bigger than usual increase in number of International visitors in 2011 may be do to the flooding. Probably lots of people who came in on 30-day entries for issues related to the flooding be it volunteering or work/business related. Just not sure these numbers could compensate for the loss during this period but then again people going and staying South of Bangkok shouldn't have been deterred by the floods ... especially those not coming for their first visit.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Nisa

[geriatrickid]

tell that to th numerous businesses that are going bust on a daily basis

Businesses often go bust because they are poorly managed, or were harebrained schemes to begin with.

How many hair dresser shops or massage parlours or noodle stands can any given soi support?

[Thaddeus]

Increasing income by 30% in a year for an entire industry is a massive increase given the initial scale of the income derived from the tourist industry in Thailand before this announcement. If I got a 30% increase in income derived from my porfolio of stock and investments in a year i would be amazed and delighted. Individual companies can perhaps do it. But an entire industry!! Good luck to them if its true, individual resorts, hoteliers and spa operators must be cashing in big time!

I don't know about the numbers and can't speak to them but would think that this money is real and did come from somewhere as it is part of the GDP. So, if the numbers are not real then they need to be siphoning and lowering the income from another sector of the economy.

I also think you would have to look at the percentage of increase or decrease in 2010. As somebody mentioned, 2009 was probably not a great year for international tourist spending in Thailand.

I think they got their figures from the Income Tax returns of all those who declare their income truthfully.

I'll get my coat again

Personally, I think they get the numbers from thin air.